May 16, 2019 Tarascon 2

For Christie and Alex's last day, we picked Tarascon to explore. That makes me happy because there's a Provençal fabric museum (and store) that I want to visit and we haven't seen the old town. We aimed for an early start, but of course with packing to leave, we were a bit behind our planned schedule. Christie and Alex will have to leave in mid-afternoon to catch their train in Avignon.

First order of business is to storm the castle while I sit in the sun and stitch with a view of the castle and Rhone river. Aaaahhhh.

my view - Rhone, castle, poppies

The day is beautiful - warm, sunny, no wind - the kind of weather we thought we'd have the whole time.

left front of castle

It takes a long time to storm this castle,

Sonna storming the castle

For Janis and Clark - Dave says this wicker Tarrasque was only partly finished while you were here. Now it's done.

Which way do we go next?

Such a view

Christie, Katie, Sona, Kim, Dale

view from the top

but at last I see the warriors cross the bridge out of the castle.

crossing the moat - Christie, Sonna, Alex

We ate lunch on a bench next to the cathedral with a view of the castle.

We ate lunch at green space left of cathedral front

With time left, we all headed into the old city following a tour from the tourist office for the historic town

entering via the Jewish gate

This town, like many in Provence, once had a Jewish "quarter" which is no more. We wound around cobbled streets to the Mairie where again we saw the candidate metal boards for the European Union elections. There are more posters on these boards. The election is in a little more than a week.

city hall

close up of clock and bells on city hall

not a great photo - but party election posters are on metal boards on right along the side of the hôtel de ville (city hall)

We wandered a few more streets stopping to learn about historic buildings. Mostly we looked at the buildings and streets and just enjoyed the ambiance of strolling through old, if bumpy, streets - and be amazed that cars actually drive on them.

cool colors on old buildings

more colors I liked

these are not pedestrian streets. 

We passed an empty store that had my Mom's name. I had to take a photo of it for my sisters.

shop for sale

We skipped the museum for the time being to continue the tour. We saw the theatre near the south gate.

museum of Provençal fabric

theatre

In case you didn't notice the cherubs on top of the theatre

looking in from outside the city gate near the theatre

Then we came to a little square where the old halles (food vendors) used to be. There's a charming quintissential bakery that catch our eye.

This is exactly what one thinks of when you think of a French boulangerie (bread shop)

Kim holding one of the shutters that will cover the windows at night

boulangerie sign

I found an amazing "little library" - only it's not little. I'm so impressed.

the book cabin - what a cool idea!

There's also a statue of Tartarin the hero of the novel Tartarin de Tarascon.

statue of Tartarin of Tarascon

We ended up at the cathedral again and said our good-byes to Christie, Alex and Sonna.

the Tarasque weather vane on top of the cathedral

two people were practicing the organ music and we were the beneficiaries

We weren't the only visitors this day - these nuns are part of Mother Theresa's order of Missionaries of Charity

lilies from the funeral that took place at noon - it's probably why the organists were still in the church

the side door of the church - notice how big they are - and they are embossed metal

We returned to Souleiado's museum of Provençal fabrics. The boys flashed through it, moderately interested, while Kim and I absorbed as much as we could, stopping to translate signs for more understanding. While we finished and went shopping in the boutique across the courtyard from the museum, the boys went in search of a brasserie. The beer they ordered was Belgian style, not really their style, but they managed. We were just paying for our fabric purchases when the boys returned wondering what was taking us so long. Cest la vie.

There was so much of interest to fabric-aholics like Kim and I that I've made that experience into a separate post. 

We drove home happy and tired. Not a bad first day for some very jet-lagged travelers.